


Strange Days

by Severina



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Community: tamingthemuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-22
Updated: 2012-07-22
Packaged: 2017-11-10 11:26:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/465747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Severina/pseuds/Severina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He fights as hard as he can for as long as he can, and when Jacqui sees the bite and tells the others, he almost feels relief.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strange Days

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJ's tamingthemuse community, prompt "strange fruit"
> 
> * * *

Jim misses them.

He dreams about them every night; wakes up with his breath hitching in his throat and tears already drying on his cheeks. In the dreams they're all alive and happy, just ordinary people doing ordinary things. Rita hanging out the laundry on the clothes line in the backyard, the boys chasing a soccer ball and getting under her feet, her laughter as she snaps a wet towel at them and chases them away. The way she feels when he sneaks up behind her and circles her waist with his arms, hugs her to him and nuzzles her neck.

Sometimes when he wakes up in the tent he swears he can still smell her perfume.

It's only when he's awake that he sees them as they were at the end, the walkers converging on them from the alley, from behind the buildings, everywhere. He blinks away the sweat trickling into his eyes and tries to concentrate on rewrapping the radiator hose with even more duct tape, tries to listen to Dale patiently explaining the finer points of engine maintenance to the kid with the baseball cap. But all it takes is the slightest hitch in his focus and he's back in front of the diner, frantically twisting the key in their crappy little subaru and hearing the engine wheeze and sputter and die. Pulling Rita and the kids from the car and trying to run. 

When the walkers attack the camp he's thrown right back into that moment. Jacqui's stricken face melts into Rita's, her mouth open wide, her throat working as she tries to scream, and then the walker's foul teeth are ripping into her and she'll never scream again, never laugh with the boys, never tease him, never tell him she loves him, voice husky and raw with need. He blinks away the image and pushes Jacqui behind him, plants his feet. He sees Carl huddled behind his mother, tears streaming down his face, and he swings his bat and takes down one walker and then another and sees Danny's small pale hand reaching for him as the walkers tore him apart and tells himself that Carl is not David, Carl is not Danny. Carl will survive.

He fights as hard as he can for as long as he can, and when Jacqui sees the bite and tells the others, he almost feels relief. He's been fighting for so long. He's tired.

The decision to have them stop at the side of the road and release him is an easy one.

He leans his head back against the tree, watches the play of light in the branches. And when he closes his eyes he sees Rita standing at the old patio table in the backyard. Her long blonde hair is up in a ponytail, and she's serving the burgers that he grilled, and Danny will only eat his hot dog one-handed because his other little fist is still clenching his favourite action figure. 

The sun is bright and hot and cleansing on his skin.

Jim smiles. He only wants to be with his family again.

Maybe getting bit was the best thing that could have happened to him.


End file.
